Do It My Way

Today was a good day. We returned from our Good Friday service and I was just hanging out relaxing and started toward bed and realized that I had not written my blog for today. So here I am racing to get it done before midnight.

We had a good day with Christian and Bridget and kids today. It was a summer-like day and we took advantage of it. We got the sprinkler system operational for the grass and Riley and Caedmon flagged the sprinkler heads for the aeration to take place in a couple of weeks. It provided them a first time to get wet running through the sprinklers.

Christian and Bridget and kids ended up on a mile and a half jaunt with me in my racing wheelchair. Eliana was on my lap and the boys were on their blade scooters and Christian and Bridget ran and pushed me.

The warm weather was inviting and we are eager to see days like today become more of the norm. In addition to a few other errands, Christian ended up building an extension on the step that goes to our patio so it would be easier for me to navigate with a walker. Once again, I found that going down is easier than coming up, so can’t do that by myself yet. Perhaps that will be the next marker of progress in m recovery. I did make my first trip to our basement. Going down on my backside wasn’t too much of a problem. Standing up at the bottom of the stairs and getting back up the stairs proved more a challenge.  But I make it and it was a good workout in the process.

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads  and saying, “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” Likewise the chief priests also, mocking with the scribes and elders,said,  “He saved others; Himself He cannot save. If He is the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. Matthew 28:39-41 (NKV)

One of the most amazing aspects of Jesus trial, punishment and crucifixion was His ability to hold His tongue and not speak or react. Besides the immeasurable physical torture and abuse that He endured, He was taunted and mocked and ridiculed from soldiers, to the religious people to just those who were hanging out (passing by).

Our natural tendency when challenged is to fight back, is to defend ourselves. For me the hot button is when people criticize me for not being who I am or for not believing what I do. I want to “set the record straight” and let them know how wrong they are. But that is not how Jesus responded.

Jesus during His ministry consistently threw curves to people. That included His disciples, rulers, religious leaders. He spoke in parables, they couldn’t catch Him with their trick questions, he ate when He was suppose to fast, He went to the wrong homes, hung out with the wrong people, performed miracles on the Sabbath, ridiculed the tradition of the religious elders.

Jesus in His ministry never did what people expected of the Messiah and this is amplified in His death. “Come down from the cross…save yourself..” We can understand someone who saves themselves, who defends themselves, who proves themselves to us, because that is what we do ALL the time. Our natural response is to save our self, whether through fight or flight. That we understand. So, it is easy to say Jesus do it my way, I can understand that, I can’t understand what you are doing and why!

What we don’t understand is someone willing to die  a sacrificial death. We don’t expect someone to be that “others-centered.” We expect someone to eventually give in to the demands of people, but Jesus yielded to the will of God the Father.

What is more amazing is the power that Jesus had at His disposal; Legions of angels waiting for His Word, ready to come to His rescue, but that was the human way out. Jesus began His ministry in the wilderness with Satan tempting Him, “if you are the Son of God.” Now at the end of His ministry at His point of even greater human weakness He hears the same words, “if you are the Son of God…save yourself.”  But He knew if He saved Himself, He would not be able to save us.

 Paul wrote to the Romans,  “For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:6,8 (NJV)

Christ’s sacrifice on the cross made the forgiveness of sin and relationship with God possible for all who believe throughout all time. He is not waiting for us to experience any degree of self improvement. We are to come to Him just as we are.

It is one thing to stop and consider that Christ died for us; it is another to realize that He died because of us. That is not just something to understand and to give cognitive consent to; that is something to embrace with our hearts and receive God’s gift freely extend through Christ’s death. Open your heart and seek to understand God’s ways and don’t get stuck demanding, “Jesus do my way.”